1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for aligning a first and a second image element with respect to a reference position. In particular, the image elements may be scanned document pages.
2. Description of Background Art
When a document, in particular a document having multiple pages, is scanned, the scanned images may be shifted and/or rotated. If the document is then printed again, the pages may be displaced with respect to each other. A user, i.e. a person reading the printed document, may find the displaced pages disturbing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,208, a method and system is disclosed for registering or aligning a front page and a back page of a page to be printed. Therefore, the front page and the back page are displayed with a transparent background and superposed with respect to each other. A user may shift the front page or back page such that the front page and the back page are aligned, or at least registered in a way that is desired by the user.
In the above-mentioned method and system, a user, i.e. an operator of the system, is required to manually shift the front page or back page. In particular, if a document comprises a relatively large number of pages, this requires a relatively large amount of time. Further, only the front page and the back page of a single page may be aligned with respect to each other. Thus, if a document comprises two or more pages, it is not possible to align the separate pages with respect to each other.